This thread is called do the math, so I'll do some math...
APA, not counting the $25 yearly membership fee..
Nightly league fee: $7
Teams: 16 - a full division.
That's 8 match ups a week, 5 players per team can play per week, 10 total @ $7 = $560 a week. $560 a week by say, a 14 week session (some are shorter, some longer) = $7,840.
In a full length session like fall or spring (summer is shorter) in a full division, the 1st place teams wins anywhere from $950 - $1,200 depending. Second in the $700 ball park. Third in the $450 - $500 range or around $55 a player if split 8 ways on a full roster. First place is just over $100 per team member. That's typical of the APA.
Works out to around 30% pay out at best. Could be lower but not higher.
If this same division, with the same fees, same length of season and so forth had a 70% pay out, first place would win around $2,500. Split 8 ways at worst with a full roster, that's just over $300 per person. More if the team is smaller in roster.
That's in one session/season. That's one season, one division. Forget other divisions, league nights, pool halls etc. It adds up.
Predictably, the sycophants of the APA and their LO's will come out and say "well, it's not about the money" ...well of course not. No one is in it to make money. It's a night out right? Great! Then why don't YOU pay out more? Guess what? The in-house league, or BCA or whatever pays out more and they're also not about the money, and their players are also NOT in it to make money - they're also about a friendly night out too. Why not have a friendly night out of fun, AND for the hell of it, get paid out 3x more than the APA?
That is why you can expect to pay well over $60,000 to buy an APA franchise. The APA is the best if you are a league operator or work for the APA. Of course they will come out and defend it with great fervor - it's their bread.
No offense to other leagues, but I wouldn't want to put in all the time and work running one, dealing with everyone's crap etcetera etcetera for a small percentage. I'd want to make as much as possible. I would be in it to make money, not to provide a pool league to a bunch of people to kick money back and forth between themselves. And if it was a low maintenance league that required little from me, I'd still want to milk it for whatever I could get. I don't offer my time and energy for the entertainment consumption of others. It's business 100%. The corrupt handicapping, the selective enforcement of rules so forth and so on. Why do you think that is? Do you really expect a LO to kick a team out or punish them for cheating or other types of violations? When that team literally puts money in his/her pocket every week? Get real.
On the other hand, for the player the APA is just about as bad as it gets. the utmost lowest payouts, the worst most nonsensical rules, and the most painful and dreadful format. There are rules in the APA that have no logical basis whatsoever. Some are so bizarre they offend one's intelligence. People wait around till 11pm or later, even as late as 1am to play their match.
Most of the members fall for the Vegas trick. It's the ultimate lure. Let's see....
Slug it out 16 weeks battling sandbaggers to try and make top 3 (or get lucky and get a wildcard), then win in playoffs against the better sandbaggers to qualify for regional. Most never make it. Then, the ones that do have to battle it out in a single elimination tournament with 32 other teams, most of whom are the most elite and sophisticated of sandbaggers where 2 qualify for that Vegas trip. Some get lucky and don't have to "invest" much to make it. By my estimation, the average APA player that DOES make it to Vegas, has spent anywhere from $3,000 - $5,000 to get there. Some more. Again, some are lucky or build all-star teams of sandbaggers to get there quick - but these built-to-go-to-Vegas teams are, in my observation, about 20% successful. One in 5 makes it. They usually fail in regionals (due to getting wiped out by some sandbagger team) and then break up.
Speaking of sandbagging. Not only is the format painful and the odds for making it to Vegas highly unfavorable, but the handicap system is perhaps the worst. It's the sandbagger's dream system. Forget the fact that their lousy secret system is exposed across the internet and is hardly a secret - the vast majority of players figure out on their own that they need to pad innings. They might not know about the applied scoring, but it doesn't matter. Padding innings still works. The "applied" system does not work at all.
If the APA handicap system worked, there wouldn't need to be a 23 rule. I know they say that's in place to break teams apart. That's absolutely true. Still, the typical 7 usually runs a 90% or higher win percentage against other handicaps. There are many instances of players putting up say, a 13-1 record on the season and not being raised. There are many more instances of players losing all season long and not being dropped a skill level. We're talking people who lose legitimately, since losing all season has no sandbagging benefit as it has knocked the team out of a playoff spot.
Individually it doesn't work. At the team level it also doesn't work.
In the APA it is not uncommon at all, in fact it's fairly typical for the first place team to have an overall team win percentage in excess of 60%. I've seen as high as 67%. Whereas, teams at the bottom can be as low as 35%.
That's not handicapping.
The APA is also like the 800lb gorilla of bad pool. Aside from standardizing bad rules among the amateur masses and reinforcing bad play and bad sportsmanship - LO's can be thugs. The APA isn't content providing a product and being happy with those that want to buy into their product. No, they attack the competition.
That is why I find it extremely hypocritical by many LO's when they whine about others attacking the APA. Why don't they talk about what many APA LO's do? APA LO's have been guilty of threatening pool room owners. Yes, I have seen it with my own eyes.
What happens is this, the pool room has 2 or 3 APA league nights. This generates a lot of business for the room owner. So much so, it becomes a critical part of their business. Keep in mind the room owner gets not a single penny from the league. The sole benefit is that it generates traffic in the room. Someone gets the idea to start an in-house league or a BCA league on a free night. The room owner is cool with the idea and ok's it for the one last open weekday night. The reason being for all of this is for something different. Not that there exists more demand for APA league play. Not at all. But there is demand for a different product, like BCA or an in-house. There's at least a few dozen people who want something different. The APA LO gets wind of this and goes around promoting another APA league night at the same place. Or offering a master's division or whatever.
Of course, the APA LO knows that as soon as a competitor league forms, his leagues will shrink. They won't be doomed, there's always a large segment who clings to the dream of getting a paid trip to Las Vegas. The other league players will see the in-house league pays out 3x more and they'll want in.
In order to destroy the competition, the LO either directly, or in a veiled manner threatens to move his divisions to another room. I've seen this happen. The LO was willing to take a drop of 70% in his membership in those particular divisions to stick it to the room owner. That's because many teams didn't want to travel to the new room. They were only interested in staying where they were at. As a result, the room owner was holding some cards and the LO came back and they came to terms. Terms which were no other leagues at the room. You might wonder, why would the LO take a hit for a session or two? Well, because he can afford these thug-like tactics. He has other divisions at other rooms. He was also an absentee LO that did it as a side thing and had other sources of income. Neglects most of the duties of being an LO. The room owner couldn't handle 3 nights a week emptying out, and the room is his only money making gig.
There's a reason there's almost NO BCA in this APA LO's territory. I suspect this is the case in other places. I'm sure some APA LO's are honest guys that play fair and promote their own league rather than try to sabotage others. No offense to those guys.
It's funny how APA LO's are sensitive to criticism, but as soon as another league, whether a national organization or in-house comes into the scene, they become vicious attack dogs. Going around, telling players how bad the other league is, spreading false rumors about the league, spreading lies and negativity about it and how it functions.
Anyhow, that's pretty much everything all in one long post. This is what I have observed over the years watching an APA league operating in the pool room I frequent.
